ACI'S UNIQUE PROPOSITION
Together with the state-of-the-art facilities in ACI and the various facilities and expertise in NYP, ACI is able to provide holistic and integrated consultancy services and applied research & development to enhance the sectoral practices and transformation of the F&B services industry.
ACI provides an excellent platform for your company to work with our Consultants and our Schools in NYP, as well as other partners and government economic agencies so as to transform or improve your F&B business; including front-of-house and back-of-house operations through new business model or product development, process optimization, adoption of appropriate technologies, lean process management and job-re-design to achieve manpower-lean.
Above all, ACI is able to provide you a test bed to validate or try out and make further improvement in your new product development, processes, and/or technology adoption to meet the market and customer needs. Funding to support these consultancy and applied R&D projects will be available for qualifying projects.
SUPPORT FROM NYP’S SCHOOL
ACI is supported by the various Schools (and other Centres of Excellence within the Schools) in Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP). NYP, which is also committed to support the development of business and industry, has tremendous capabilities applicable or customisable to the F&B services industry. Examples of the expertise and capabilities include:
School of Chemical & Life Sciences (SCL)
The Food Science Division in SCL has been working closely with the F&B industry in areas such as: product or menu development, food ingredients, applied nutritional studies, food innovation and food technology. One of the many success stories include winning the “Best New Ice Cream Award” in Austria, beating well-known ice cream brands like Haagen-Dazs and Dreyer’s. The School has facilities like meat processing laboratory, where it works with central kitchens to compare sensory quality of manual margination and vacuum tumbling of meats. The main processing laboratory has retort and small packing line facilities to create and process ready meals. The School has also been involved in projects like shelf life extension, sensory analysis and alternative ingredients for the food and beverage services industry.
School of Engineering (SEG)
The School of Engineering has an Industrial Project Group (IPG) which consists of a multi-disciplinary team of full-time project engineers, designers and technologists. The multi-disciplinary capabilities allows NYP-ACI to provide full-turnkey integrated solution to industries covering project consultancy, project management, design, development and system commissioning leveraging on technologies; robotics and automation, imaging, and electronics for the F&B services industry. Some of the projects with the industry include a Flavour Mixing and Dispensing System, Robotic Cutlery Sorting and Packaging, etc.
School of Information Technology (SIT)
The School of Information Technology has a Centre for IT Innovation (CITI) to engage industry on projects as well as R&D efforts. Some of the capabilities within CITI include: Mobile Apps for a Restaurant Operations or Chain of Restaurants Operations; Business Analytics applications in Menu Engineering & Profitability Analysis. A recent project developed for an F&B restaurant demonstrated SIT’s capability to offer innovative solutions in enterprise systems and mobile computing. The project involves developing a system for customers to make reservations and provide feedbacks using Android, iOS and Windows mobile devices.
School of Design (SDN)
The School of Design has the expertise and capability to offer consultancy and applied R&D services in areas like Visual communication i.e. Branding, Packaging Design, Menu Design and in other areas like Space Planning and Layout Design, Space Optimization Studies, Product Design etc.
School of Business Management (SBM)
The School of Business Management operates a number of businesses within the NYP campus under its unique Teaching Enterprise Project (TEP) concept. These business enterprises include a 120-seat full table service training restaurant (brand-named: L’Rez), and a quick service training café serving beverages and quick snacks (L’Café) operated by staff and students pursuing the Diploma in Food & Beverage Business. SBM also has a Productivity Training Centre, which provides a ready pool of trainees to assist in any productivity improvement related projects and/or applied research & development.